Neji Hyuga
'Neji Hyuga '''is one of the characters of The Naruto Tales series. He is the older cousin of Hinata Hyuga and one of Naruto Uzumaki's friends, as well as Hiashi Hyuga's nephew. Background Neji is the only child of Hizashi Hyuga. As it has been noted by many people from his clan, he was born with a extremely strong Byakugan, but as his father was in the branch house of the Hyuga, Neji was placed there too. Hizashi deeply loved his son more than anything, and so was revolted at the fact he was in the branch house, feeling he was destined for bigger things, yet his life would be wasted. Hizashi often blamed himself for the fact that his son would suffer in the future, but Neji was still too young to understand. In the day of Hinata's third birthday, when Neji was four years old, the whole clan had to commemorate and Hizashi brought Neji with him. There, the two cousins met for the first time and Neji happily told his father he found Hinata cute. Hiashi then said it was time for him to take Neji under his wing and Hizashi agreed, leaving Neji confused. Hiashi then marked his nephew with the Hyuga cursed seal. That same day, Neji and Hinata sparred, him winning. Later Neji and Hizashi watched as Hinata trained with Hiashi, and angered because his son had been marked with the seal, and subconsciously activated his Byakugan. Feeling the killing intent, Hiashi activated Hizashi's cursed seal, punishing him and threatening Neji, an act that traumatized him. After Hizashi's death, Neji thought he had been forced to die, which made him start hating the main house, including Hinata, and due to that, got his cursed seal activated sometimes. Neji adopted the idea of inescapable destiny, thinking that one's fate is decided at birth and they have to follow it blindly. Later, during the Chuunin Exams, Naruto Uzumaki convinced him otherwise, and since then, Neji has been trying to fix his relationship with his cousin. Appearance Neji has often been described as handsome and attractive throughout the series. He is a tall and slender boy of 17 years old with fair skin, with long, dark brown hair he keeps tied some inches before the end, with the bangs framing his face and touching his shoulders. As a member of the Hyuga clan, he has featureless light lavender eyes, that become more white and detailed when he activates his Byakugan, along with some veins popping up at the sides of his face. In ''The Naruto Tales, his chosen clothing style is a white kimono-shirt with long, loose sleeves, matching pants, a navy-grey apron tied around his waist, and black shinobi sandals. When he was 14 years old, Neji wore a beige-coloured shirt, a dull blue shirt beneath that, and mesh armour beneath that. He wore dark brown shorts, blue shinobi sandals, and wrapped bandages around his right arm, chest, and right leg. He wore a black forehead protector, under which was a smaller headband with two straps that frame the sides of his face, both of which hide his Hyuga main family's juinjutsu. Personality Neji is shown to be very serious and a good leader. Despite sometimes being cold and aloof and seemingly careless, Neji cares a lot about his friends and family, even willing to sacrifice his life for them without hesitations. A proof of this is how he is determined to rebuild his relation with Hinata at all costs and spends most of his time helping her train and talking to her to understand her better. He is also determined to grow stronger so that he can protect his loved ones better. Neji is kind, being supportive of other people's dreams and encouraging them to follow their beliefs, as he learned that one has the ability to choose and build their own fate. The person Neji loves the most is Hinata, and he is very grateful to Naruto for helping him get out of darkness, even wondering what kind of monster would he have become if Naruto had given up on him. Neji is highly intelligent and very analytical, being able to examine a situation calmly and find a solution most of the times. During missions or serious subjects, Neji doesn't let his emotions take care of him. One of the few people who can make Neji panic and so, stop rationalizing and make precipitate decisions is his uncle Hiashi, as his mere presence disturbs Neji due to his past and current actions towards him and his father. It's also implied that looking at Hiashi makes him eerie because he reminds him of his father. He occasionally feels guilty towards his teammates for all the terrible things he did and said to them, becoming a bit depressed, but then realizes that he can't change the past, and everything he can do now is support them as much as he can. Relationships Hinata Hyuga Hinata is Neji's cousin. When they first met, both of them were curious about each other, but Neji was slightly more open about it, even confiding to his father he found Hinata "a cute child". Until Hizashi's death, their relation was close, but after his death, Neji began to blame the main branch and hate all of them, including Hinata. During their trainings, Neji often unleashed his bottled resentment in Hinata, which resulted in Hiashi activating his cursed seal a few times. After the first Chuunin Exams, however, Naruto opened Neji's eyes and he began trying to fix his relation with Hinata and stopped blaming her for his father's death. The two of them have improved their relation a lot ever since, becoming very close. Neji offers himself to train with Hinata very often, which has significantly improved her skills as a kunoichi. Neji still feels guilty about the way he used to treat Hinata and due to that, puts her and her needs above his own. Also because of that, it's been mentioned that Neji wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice his own life for Hinata. Naruto Uzumaki Naruto was the one who saved Neji from darkness, as both put it, and so, Neji is extremely grateful to him. Even though their personalities are opposites, and so, tend to clash often, as well as their ideas, both of them care a lot about each other and consider each other dear friends. As Neji knows the feelings Hinata harbors for Naruto and knows she would be happy with him, he often tries to drop hints at Naruto about it. But since his oblivion to her feelings makes her suffer, Neji can often lose his patience and snap at Naruto, calling him an idiot and leaving him confused. Neji cares so much about Naruto, Hinata and their relationship that he is willing to take punishments from Hiashi if it means the two can meet. Tenten Tenten is one of Neji's teammates. Ever since they met, Tenten has been harboring secret romantic feelings for Neji, dropping hints of him a few times. It's unknown if Neji was oblivious to those feelings or chose to ignore them, but he eventually proposed to Tenten after Hinata encouraged him to find someone he loved, just like she had. Their relationship was good at first, but Neji ended up breaking up with her. After their breakup, Tenten had sex with Lee, becoming pregnant with his child, and blamed Neji for that. When he discovered about what had happened, he talked to her and tried to fix their relationship as friends, even offering himself to help her with the baby, but she, in the middle of desperation, implied the baby was his. It's unknown what will be of their relationship after this, but Neji still cares about Tenten and she still has feelings for him (albeit unrequited). Hiashi Hyuga Category:Characters Category:Alive Category:Male Category:Konohagakure Category:Hyuga Clan Category:Jonin